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IBM ps/2 model 50

A

alank2

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I ordered this off eBay today - my first "real" ps/2. Can you guys tell me what exactly I'm in for?

Is this the 286/10 MHz?

I think the hard drive is not working, but he shows pictures of the floppy disk booting DOS. Any tips on checking out the drive? Is it a pre-IDE type?

Is the monitor color?
 
If you intended on including a photo or photos it/they didn't get included in the post. There are two model 50 PS/2's - the 50 and 50Z. Both have a slot specified for a HDD controller which could be ST-506 MFM and there is an ESDI controller and IIRC there were aftermarket IDE controllers/interfaces made for microchannel. It's been at least 10 years since I've messed with any of the PS/2 line though I had tons of them at one time and now only have a 9595 PS/2 Server 95 that hasn't been powered in at least 10 yrs. Since I don't recall the specs and such of the PS/2 line well anymore I can recommend you visit https://ardent-tool.com/ for lots of support and files and manuals for the PS/2 line. There is also a PS/2 newsgroup still active at https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware and many of the very knowledgeable PS/2 folks still hang out on. There are some other sites for files, software, etc such as MCA Mafia (I think it's out of Germany but in English) as well. You might check the model number or the FRU (field replaceable unit) number in an online search to see what type drive it is or you can also search out the FRU of the interface/controller card that the drive is attached to.

The 50 and 50Z units have a 286 but not sure of the speed, you might look at the CPU itself for the model 286 it has on the board.
 
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It looks like it's showing a POST code of 161, which probably indicates a bad battery, or maybe they pulled it and it lost the settings. If you boot it with a reference disk maybe it will configure the hard drive and you'll get lucky?
 
A company called Reply made some awesome upgrade motherboards for the Model 50 that could take it up to a 50mhz 486SLC2 and let you substitute an IDE drive for the proprietary mess that describes all the original options. I’d love to have one of those. But I’m sure if one ever shows up on eBay it’ll cost you both legs, an arm, and three kidneys.
 
I saw something about "reply" in terms of the reference disks for it - that explains what that is! It sounds like it was an IBM option of some type which is interesting if that is true.
 
alank2 said:
I saw something about "reply" in terms of the reference disks for it - that explains what that is! It sounds like it was an IBM option of some type which is interesting if that is true.
Click to expand...
Reply was an aftermarket planar/motherboard made for retrofitting some PS/2 models. As mentioned the 161 and 163 are generally indicating loss of BIOS settings but you need a setup (reference) disk to access BIOS unlike most other boards where a keypress will let you into BIOS. There are image files of the setup disks on the site I linked but you need a working machine with a 3.5" floppy to make the setup disk - or have someone send you a copy already made up. The battery used in the 50 series is a photo battery, you can get them at many stores and online. Look on the battery for the specific type and then look on ebay, amazon, batteries plus, etc or check your local chain drug store or department store. There is a way to do some settings through the embedded ROM BASIC but first you need a new battery then you need the text on what to type in for each setting - much easier to find someone that can make you a disk and mail it to you. You may find during autodetect with the setup disk that it loads the hard drive type and has your hard drive working possibly. Your 8513 monitor is a color VGA.
 
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Thanks Russ; I downloaded the disk image and have other systems that can write the disk so I'm good to go on that. Will check out the battery when it arrives and see what I can replace it with. Crossing my fingers that the drive will work, but if it doesn't, are there any other drive options for it?
 
alank2 said:
Thanks Russ; I downloaded the disk image and have other systems that can write the disk so I'm good to go on that. Will check out the battery when it arrives and see what I can replace it with. Crossing my fingers that the drive will work, but if it doesn't, are there any other drive options for it?
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Once you make the disk you can run it and see if the drive auto-configures and mess with it once it does come to life, you will just have to do it again once the battery comes in. No need to wait for the battery to test it once you have the disk made.
 
So far the floppy drive is working.

I get a 1790 from the hard disk, but it seems to work until it runs into a bad sector. I'm surprised it works at all after the 1790 - any thoughts on that?

Running a scandisk c:/s on it and it is finding more bad sectors.

How do I low level format it? Can the reference disk do this?
 
alank2 said:
So far the floppy drive is working.

I get a 1790 from the hard disk, but it seems to work until it runs into a bad sector. I'm surprised it works at all after the 1790 - any thoughts on that?

Running a scandisk c:/s on it and it is finding more bad sectors.

How do I low level format it? Can the reference disk do this?
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Did you figure out what type (MFM/RLL, ESDI. SCSI, IDE, etc) the hard drive is? Low level will be dependent on the type of drive/interface.
 
Would the upgrade kit for the model 60 work on the 50? I hear it works on the XT/286. I actually happen to have one, its a kingston 386/50 upgrade.
 
I think it is a 20 MB MFM.

>Would the upgrade kit for the model 60 work on the 50? I hear it works on the XT/286. I actually happen to have one, its a kingston 386/50 upgrade.

I don't know, but it sounds cool!
 
I got to this late - that is the original 8550-021. And yes, that 20Mb drive isn't on any system, most of them are dead this many years later. You might be able to get it to low-level format by pressing CTRL-A after the Reference Diskette loads.

www.ardent-tool.com

8550 Planar

www.ardent-tool.com www.ardent-tool.com
 
Thanks for the CTRL-A - I was about to search for that.

Started the LL format - it is on cylinder 12 with 11 bad sectors so far. What usually goes wrong with the drives? Are they repairable at all?
 
The reference disk complains about too many errors at cylinder 39. Is there another low level format tool that might try to format the full disk without giving up?
 
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